In all of the strategizing she’d done over the last few hours, cutting right to the chase had seemed to make the most sense. After all, not even her trampled pride could make her a beat-around-the-bush kind of girl.
Her mother stopped short, a few paces away from the kitchen, and turned to stare at Bellamy with round, worried eyes. “What’s the matter?”
“Relax, Mom. I’m fine.” Eh. Mostly fine, but she wasn’t about to get into her ruined love life with her mom.
“You don’t look fine,” her mother protested, drawing her brow in tightly. “Bob!” she called, but Bellamy’s father was already in the kitchen doorway.
“She looks beautiful to me. Hi, baby.” He greeted her with his standard hug-and-kiss combo that could still take the sting out of any bad day. A little bit, anyway. Bellamy let him squeeze her a little extra, just for good measure.
“Hi, Daddy.” She blew out a sigh. Holy shit, this going to be hard.
“She has something to tell us,” her mother warned, her green eyes clouding over with concern as she motioned for Bellamy to sit next to her on the living room couch.
“Oh?” Her father’s glance darkened a shade, his worry matching her mother’s. He came in to sit in a chair next to her mother. “What’s going on, sweetheart? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she insisted, tugging at her gloves and sitting down.
Now or never, girlfriend.
“I, uh. I quit my job.”
Silence flooded through the room, and Bellamy counted a handful of deafening heartbeats before her mother finally responded.
“I don’t understand. Did you find a better position with another bank?”
“No.” Her nice, deep breath barely made it a fraction of the way to her lungs. “I’ve decided to switch careers.”
“You’re leaving real estate?” Her father drew back in his chair, eyes wide.
“I’m leaving business.” Bellamy sucked in all the air she could muster, opting for the blurt-it-out method so she wouldn’t lose her nerve. “I know that you guys have always wanted me to go into business like you, and I tried, I really did. I just don’t love it. I don’t even think I like it, to be honest. Working at the bank drove me crazy. No offense,” she scrambled to add, trying not to trip on her words, “but I was miserable there, so I decided to quit.”
Her mother’s lips parted in shock. “But what will you do?”
The butterflies that had taken up residence in Bellamy’s stomach a few hours ago reminded her again of their presence. “I’m going to train to be a chef.”
“A chef,” her father repeated, sounding certain he’d misunderstood.
Bellamy nodded. “Do you know who Carly di Matisse is?”
“The Italian chef on that show with her husband?” her father asked, blinking.
“Yes. She’s the new head chef at the restaurant in Pine Mountain Resort, and she called today to offer me a chance to work for her as a line cook.”
“Is that why you went to the mountains? To get a job?” Her father creased his brow.
Bellamy gave her head a quick shake. “No, not at all. It just kind of happened really fast.” She proceeded to give them a condensed version of her unorthodox kitchen audition with Adrian and the meeting with Carly that had ensued.
“But you haven’t even gone to culinary school,” her mother said, confused. “Doesn’t that put you at a disadvantage?”
“It sure does. And I’ll probably have to do some formal training at some point in order to really move up in the ranks.” Truth rang in Bellamy’s voice, and it steadied her. “Chef di Matisse made it clear when she offered me the job today that she was taking a flyer on me and if I couldn’t hack it, she’d fire me without a second thought. I’m going to have to do a tremendous amount of work on my own time just to keep up, and the reality is that no matter what I do, I still might get canned. But I want this in a way that I’ve never wanted anything else. So, even if I screw it up, I have to be true to myself and give it a shot.”
A wave of relief washed over Bellamy at the words, but it mingled with the uncertainty on both of her parents’ faces, leaving her uneasy.
“And you’re sure this is what you want?” her mother finally said, eyes firm on Bellamy’s.
Bellamy didn’t even think twice. “Yes.”
Her father scrubbed a hand down his clean-shaven jaw. “It’s a hell of a risk, sweetheart. But if I’m being honest, you’ve loved to cook since you were a kid. I always thought it was a hobby, but if you want to make a go of it, then I think you should.”
“We think you should,” her mother corrected, nodding.
“Wait. You do?” Bellamy sputtered.
“Of course we do. Did you think we wouldn’t support you?” her father asked, starting to smile.
She gave a tiny nod. “Well, kind of. Yeah. It’s a little crazy.”
“About as crazy as the day the two of us stood in your grandmother and grandfather’s house and told them we were going to start our own business on nothing more than a shoestring and our own determination. But it was what we wanted, and it’s obvious that this is what you want,” he answered.
Tears pricked Bellamy’s eyes, quickly spilling onto her cheeks. “I really do,” she nodded, letting her mother gather her up for a tight hug.
“You have to be true to your heart, honey. If you get that part down, everything else has a way of falling into place.”
As she stood in the embrace of both her parents with tears streaming down her face, it was all Bellamy could do to convince herself that the only thing following her heart would get her was that job.
29
Bellamy slid her key into the lock of her condo, shutting the door safely behind her and locking it again once she was inside. It was still relatively early on a Friday night, so she surveyed the contents of her refrigerator, settling for a bottle of water. What she really wanted was to crack open the bottle of pinot grigio she had chilling in her mini wine fridge, but she was pretty sure it was high-key pathetic to drink a bottle of wine all by your lonesome not even a whole day after being jilted by a guy you thought you knew. A guy you thought you might even love.
On second thought, where was that corkscrew?
Bellamy poured herself a glass of wine and trudged down the hall to her bathroom to draw a bubble bath. As soon as she started the water, the sound of the phone interrupted her again, only this time she was prepared. She lifted the phone from her bedside table, glancing at the caller ID.
“Hello?”
“Hey, how did it go with your parents?” Jenna asked.
Bellamy let out a little smile and ran a hand through her hair. “Pretty well, all things considered. Aside from the normal parental concern over the whole taking-a-big-step thing, they were kind of excited, actually. Thanks for letting me borrow your car to go see them.”
“No problem. Is it cool with you if I come grab the keys in about half an hour? My roommate’s going to be out your way, and she said she could drop me off so you don’t have to make a trip tomorrow.”
Bellamy eyed the bathroom door, thinking. “I was going to get in the tub. Why don’t you use your spare key to get in, and I’ll leave them on the kitchen counter for you.” God, did that bone-weary voice really belong to her?